INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1. Prepare your Mondo royal icing mix according to the instructions on the box. Place a small amount of icing in seperate bowls. Colour your icing a couple of drops at a time until you reach your desired colour. Add a few drops of water at a time to reach the desired thick honey consistency needed for piping.

Step 2. Pipe a round circle shape on the head using a No1piping tip in the Fleshtone colour. Fill in outline with a No 2 tip and allow to dry. Use your toothpick to pop any air bubbles that may occur during flooding your cookie with icing. This will prevent any holes from appearing in your icing when it dries.Use a damp paintbrush to tidy up any icing that is untidy or piped outside the lines.

Step 3. Pipe an outline in Navy Blue with a No1 tip for the pants on the lower part of the cookie body, then fill in with icing with a No2 tip. Allow to dry.

Step 4. Pipe the hair in Sunset Orange icing using a No1 tip.

Step 5. Pipe two small dots as eyes in black icing with a No1 tip. Using a Chefmaster food colour pen in black, draw a small curve as the mouth.

Step 6. Pipe the outline of the jacket in Navy Blue with a No1 tip and fill in with icing with a No2 tip. Allow to dry.

Step 7. Outline the the jacket and the pants in black icing with a No1 tip.

Step 8. Pipe a yellow belt on the lower part of the jacket. Pipe a sash across the front of the jacket in Sky Blue.Then pipe little dots as buttons down the front of the jacket in yellow, and detail across the shoulders and neck for the collar. With the red icing pipe two small lines on the chest and finish with two small yellow dots to resemble medals. All to be piped with a No1 tip. Allow to dry.

Anita's hot tips for great looking cookies:

Royal Icing Mixing: Mix your icing on the lowest speed of your mixer. if you mix your icing too fast this will incorporate too many air bubbles and holes will form in your icing when drying spoiling the look of your cookie.

Royal Icing Storage: Cover your royal icing in cling wrap to avoid it setting up a crust before you get a chance to pipe it. Royal Icing can be stored in an air tight container at room temperature for a maximum of four days. It will need to have a good mix with a spoon before use, you do not have to put it back in the mixer.

Colouring: Add only a couple of drops of Chefmaster food colour gel at a time to your icing. Adding too much at once to get a strong colour may affect the taste of your icing and possibly cause it to seperate. As it's a concentrated food colour gel you do not need a lot. Allow the colour to develop over a few hours if you want a stronger colour, it will get darker over time.

Consistency: 20 second icing is like thick honey. Drag a butter knife through your icing and count to 20. When the surface of your icing becomes smooth at the count of 15 or just over your ready to pipe. Add a few drops of water if it's still too thick, or if it's too thin add a little icing sugar to thicken it up.

Posture: If your hands are a little shaky, rest your elbow on your work surface to and use your spare hand to guide your piping hand to help steady your piping.

Practice: Do 5 minutes of piping practice before you start the project, it always helps my hands get into the flow of piping.

Piping Bags: Seal the end of your piping bag with a rubber band so your icing doesn't make a mess everywhere. It also decreases the pressure on your hand while piping your icing.

Piping: Rest your piping tips under a damp towel while not being used. This prevents them from drying out and clogging.